A
Aurelio
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Hello!Fathers Robert I. Bradley, S.J. and Eugene Kevane’s The Roman Catechism, Boston, Massachusetts: St. Paul Editions, 1984 has an interesting piece on the Words of Consecration of the Wine at Mass.
On page 223, we find this heading:
24. The Appropriateness of the Special Mention of the Passion in This Consecration
"More appropriately here than at the consecration of the bread, the sacred Passion is commemorated by the words, which shall be shed for the remission of sins.
"This second and separate consecration represents most vividly the suffering and death of our Lord.
"The next phrase **for you and for many **is taken partly from St. Matthew, partly from St. Luke (Mt 26:28; Lk 22:20).
"Guided by the Spirit of God, the Catholic Church has made it a single phrase.
"It is meant to designate the actual effectiveness of the Passion.
"If we consider its potential efficacy, we would have to say that the Blood of the Savior was shed for all men.
"But if we look to what it actually achieves in terms of mankind’s acceptance of it, we see that it does not extend to the whole, but only to a large part of the human race.
"When, therefore, he said, for you, he meant those only who were present at the Supper except Judas; or he may also have meant all the disciples whom he had chosen along with the Twelve.
"And when he added, for many, he was including all the other elect from among the Jews and the Gentiles until the end of time.
“The alternative expression, for all, was properly omitted, because here it is only the fruit of the Passion which is spoken of; and for the elect only does the Passion bear the fruit of salvation.”
NOW: The authors’ footnote # 18 tells us that:
"This disjunction in meaning between many and all, although valid on the terms of the theological distinction made in the text, is unnecessary on purely philological and historical terms.
“The polloi of the original New Testament text means both many and *all *interchangeably.” Etc. etc.
Aurelio:thumbsup:
